Ben Scheirman

Swift for Good

A few months ago Paul Hudson asked me if I would be interested in contributing to a new book. The idea of the book was this: many authors, each writing a chapter about

macOS

Modern AppKit File Permissions

Sandboxing has been a fact of macOS development for quite some time now. With each release of macOS we see an increasing number of features and new security constraints that we must live with.

swift

Xcode Environment Specific Configuration

Almost every app you build with Xcode will need some sort of configuration. Whether it is API Keys for 3rd party SDKs, the URL of your API, feature toggles, or a logging level of verbosity, it’s a good idea to keep this configuration separate from your code.

apps

Side Mirror Gets Dark Mode

Side Mirror 2.1 was released to the Mac App Store with support for Dark Mode on macOS Mojave.

swift

Capturing Self with Swift 4.2

Swift blocks are an increasingly common way of providing _callback_ type behavior to asynchronous functions. Swift 4.2 introduced an interesting change recently, but first let's take a step back and review what "capturing" means.

podcast

Introducing - appDevDiary, a Podcast

I'm teaming up with my friend Joe Cieplinski (fellow musician and app developer) to build an app for guitarists. We're documenting our journey in a new podcast.

swift

Functional Refactoring in Swift

Here's an example I came across recently where I wanted to clean up some imperative code and explore a functional approach to the same algorithm.

swift

Codable Improvements in Swift 4.1

In Swift 4.1 Apple has addressed a common point of customization with the new keyDecodingStrategy on JSONDecoder.

speaking

dotSwift Paris 2018

I just returned from a trip to Paris for the dotSwift conference. Since this is my third trip to Paris, I wanted to see a few things that I had missed in my previous trips.

iOS

Hidden AVFoundation Gem

I've probably written aspect ratio code a hundred times. Each time I approach the topic, I write a quick and dirty implementation, get it wrong, debug it with pencil & paper, and then

apple

Apple Needs Better FaceTime Cameras for the Mac

But as the iPhone has led the pack in camera optics and technology in a small package, none of that love has made it back to the Mac.

iOS

Jerky Scrolling with UIRefreshControl + UITableView

While recording an episode for NSScreencast, in which I reload rows of a UITableView while scrolling, I noticed that the scrolling acceleration would screech to a halt.

apps

Side Mirror 2.0

I'm excited to announce that Side Mirror 2.0 is now live on the Mac App Store!

swift

Ultimate Guide to JSON Parsing with Swift

Swift 4 and Foundation has finally answered the question of how to parse JSON with Swift.

iOS

The Effect of Primetime Media Coverage

In I talked about how I helped launch the 5 Calls iOS app. Shortly after this hit the store, Michael Moore (yes, that Michael Moore) ...

5 Calls

I have become much more political in the last year than I ever have before. Like many, completely dumbstruck by the outcome of the election, I have been struggling with how best to

recording

An Affordable Dynamic Mic Recommendation

I often get asked what mic people should use when getting started screencasting. Since screencasting is a significant part of my business, I am comfortable spending a little more than a hobbyist to get good quality sound. Pictured above you can see my microphone and audio interface.

iOS

Background Downloads

In the previous post I wrote about how I designed the download system for the NSScreencast iOS app. There's no need to have the user be forced to keep our app in the foreground while the download is in progress, we naturally want to support background downloads.

iOS

Designing a Robust Large File Download System

For the NSScreencast iOS app I wanted to support downloading videos for offline use. With each video being between 80-200 MB in size, this requires some attention to create a download system that is resilient to failure.

iOS

Resume Data Broken in iOS 10

Downloading files on iOS is fairly straight forward. You configure a URLSession with a URLSessionConfiguration, create a URLSessionDownloadTask with the URL that you want to download, and then call .resume() on it. Later

iOS

Nibs are Cool Again

I’m working on a client project that has a pretty large legacy codebase. For some new features I’m working inside of an existing architecture, so I’m using a when-in-rome strategy

iOS

Exporting Devices with Spaceship

One of my clients is submitting an app to the store under a different Apple Developer account than it was developed with. This left us with about 50 devices in the old portal

gaming

SteelSeries Nimbus Controller

If you’ve tried playing any games with the Siri Remote, you’ve probably noticed how awkward the situation is. There are some games that lend themselves to such an input device (such

tvOS

Painless Authentication on Apple TV

The primary input mechanism for Apple TV text entry is a single thumb on a tiny trackpad. Needless to say, entering text is a nuissance. Entering complex passwords is downright painful. So painful,

tvOS

Say Hello to NSScreencast TV

I'm proud to announce that NSScreencast is now available on your Apple TV! You can browse all the screencasts straight from your couch, using adaptive quality streaming up to 1080p HD. Free episodes